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Expanding upon this, I have two ideas behind this question - 1) that current knowledge of the brain and its workings (biochemically, biomechanically, physiologically etc) is in its infancy and that we are a long way from fully understanding the mechanisms of cognition and brain function......

and 2) There are people in this world that have amazing cognitive and mental capabilities and I believe they show off what the brain can achieve in terms of singular focussed abilities such as autistic savants.

These people are amazing at one or two abilities such as mental calculations, eidetic memory, polylingualism, prodigious musical ability etc and I realise these people have some sort of deficit or disability but I think it simply displays the potential that everyone could have if they had the right stuff (whatever this may be!).

Thinking of this potential when the time comes when we understand a whole lot more about the brain:

Will it be possible to use neuroscientific knowledge to personalise each child's cognitive learning at each stage in their lives from say age one onwards through to school level to allow them to develop savant like capabilities, even if it isn't as impressive as actual savants?

Thank you, sorry for the long winded question but my thinking is that the brain is capable of lots more and if we are today basing some of our education curriculum and structure on current scientific knowledge then surely in the future this could snowball for such sciences to fulfil our cognitive potential.

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There is an emerging trend in cognitive science called neuroeducation - the wikipedia page is of interest, especially the section "Neuroscience and education: A bridge too far" (I removed the question mark). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_neuroscience

Another thought that came while reading your interesting question. It is about the desire to enhance the human mind, a desire that we find for example in the "transhumanism" movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism). If I understand the role of cognitive science as a science to describe how the mind works, I have a hard time thinking about it as a science that aim at modifying how the brain works. Cognitive science would not be a science anymore, but a technology.

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  • $\begingroup$ We must be very careful to point out that even though there is a trend in this direction, this trend is seen with a massive amount of skepticism by many in the scientific community. $\endgroup$
    – honi
    Commented Nov 18, 2015 at 18:04
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There is one more way how to use neuroscience for better education and learning - the brain-based coaching by David Rock. This kind of applied neuroscience is part of some managerial courses.

The limits of neuroscience has been mentioned by Benedict XVI. in his encyklica Caritas in Veritate.

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